Skinny Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Discovery #1: Broccoli cheddar soup can be a lot healthier and still taste delicious.

For this soup, I took out all the flour, butter, and cream and thickened the soup with a cauliflower and onion purée.

I loved it, but – to my amazement – it was also 100 percent Meat-and-Potatoes-Guy approved.

Discovery #2: My beagle Calvin was a race car driver in a former life.

Lately, whenever we take him along for a drive, he does whatever it takes to get himself from the backseat to the front (pitiful whining and whimpering and throwing himself over any obstacles in his way) so he can take the driver’s seat (blurry photos courtesy of my iPhone).

Perched so he can see through the windshield, taking the wheel with both front paws.

Or just one paw if he’s feeling a little more leisurely.

The best part is when this perch gets tiring, in which case Cal gets inventive and uses his nose to help himself balance at the wheel.

If he wasn’t a race car driver, he was surely the proud chauffeur for a very wealthy family. I’ve never seen Calvin more pleased than when he’s sitting in the driver’s seat.

But back to the soup, this Skinny Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipe is my healthier, more veggie-filled version of the hearty, classic winter comfort food.

This tasty soup happens to be really packed with nutrition too.

Each main dish serving has:

269 calories for a very generously-sized bowlful

tons of detoxifying fiber (24% DV)

plus filling protein (23g)

lots of skin-smoothing potassium (26% DV) and calcium (42% DV)

plenty of immunity-boosting Vitamin C (263% DV)

To get started, here are all the ingredients you’ll need.

First, prepare some fresh veggies.

Begin by roughly chopping an onion.

No need to spend time perfectly dicing it either – it will be puréed after it’s cooked.

Next, roughly chop some cauliflower.

Place the head of cauliflower right side up on the cutting board and quarter it.

This makes it easy to slice off the stem: cut into the first quarter, angling your knife so it removes the core and green leaves without cutting into the florets.

The florets should break apart as you cut out the core.

Grab some fresh broccoli and chop off the stalk so that the florets break apart.

Pile up the florets and chop in all directions, cutting the florets into small, bite-sized pieces.

Next, grate a carrot.

Then grate some cheese.

Puh-lenty of fresh, organic cheddar cheese.

Use the sharp kind for the fullest flavor.

Next, prepare the cauliflower purée.

Heat some olive oil in a large sauce pot.

Cook the chopped onion for a few minutes, until it begins to soften.

Then add the cauliflower and cook for several minutes more.

When the cauliflower is softened too, turn off the heat.

Add some 1 percent milk and season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Then grab an immersion hand blender and purée until you’re left with a smooth, creamy mixture.

If you don’t have an immersion hand blender, transfer the mixture to a food processor to purée.

Heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until it's softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook until softened, about 7 minutes more. Add the milk and season with salt and pepper.

Use an immersion hand blender to puree the mixture until it's smooth and creamy (or transfer mixture to a food processor to purée).

Heat 1½ tablespoons of olive oil in a large stock pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the broccoli and shredded carrots and season with salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are softened, about 5 - 7 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil, then adjust the heat to a light simmer. Stir in the dijon, honey, and paprika. Turn off the heat.

Carefully stir in the cauliflower purée and the shredded cheddar. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

I love that you still kept all the cheese! Sometimes I feel like it’s too much to eliminate ALL the “bad” stuff from a recipe…it compromises the taste! This looks great, I’ve been meaning to try cauliflower puree lately on its own but it sounds even better in this

Ooooh, broccoli and cheddar is one of my fav combos! Yum! Also, I can’t believe Calvin is the same puppy from your amazing dog biscuits post (I still make those for my guy btw, he loves them!) – he’s grown so much. Still a cutie though

THis looks incredibly delicious. You had me surprised because I totally thought you would have added flour and a little butter to thicken this up, cauliflower is brilliant. Of course, you definitely need lots of cheese to compensate for the lack of butter, but at least it’s good for you. I love this idea, bookmarking it.

We’ve been going soup crazy over here at my house…it’s been pouring down rain for days on end so soup has been hitting the spot. We haven’t made a broccoli cheddar yet and it sounds soooo good! I’ll try your recipe and let you know how it goes!

I better never find out where you live, because I’ll come and steal Calvin. Thanks for the pictures of the little four legged race car driver. Love the broccoli soup recipe. I bet the cauliflower not only adds flavor, but a little thickness for the soup as well. It sounds good to me!

The cheddar plays a big part. I always wondered what type of soup stock is best for soup or risotto. I’ve tried the Knorr’s non-MSG chicken and veggie cubes, they don’t seem to taste right. I must try THIS recipe. I love the creamy cheddar and broccoli in soup.

Hmmm, I think it will depend on your taste and you may like this soup as leftovers (I don’t love it as leftovers myself). I think it may be worth trying, especially if you eat a bowl fresh on the day that you make it (when it tastes best).
I do have a couple of other soups that I think hold up a bit better as leftovers: Creamy Chicken Florentine, as well as 8-Veggie Soup.

I didn’t get any separation when I reheated the next day. I did use my Vitamix for pureeing and 2% milk instead of 1% because it’s what I had on hand. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. It tasted even better the next day, just as most soups do. Many thanks for this wonderful recipe!

My best suggestion for this soup as a substitute for mustard would be turmeric (maybe about 2 teaspoons) and white wine vinegar (maybe about 2-3 teaspoons). These two things combined should help season the soup a bit if you’re leaving out the mustard.

Made this for supper last night and although I’ll have to tweak it a bit, I really enjoyed it (and hubby ate it too, which was a shock). For some reason the cauliflower puree and veg. broth didn’t mix well and it was more of a veg. broth with cauliflower puree bits mixed in. I didn’t mind it, but it wasn’t creamy as it was intended. Perhaps an immersion blender would help (just used a food processor).

Yes, I think chicken would work well in this recipe. Season the cubed chicken with salt and pepper and brown it in a bit of olive oil in the large stock pot first before you start cooking the broccoli and carrots. Then scoop it out of the pot, transfer it to a bowl and cover with foil. Add a bit more oil to the pan and follow the recipe from there, cooking the broccoli and carrots and so on. Add the cooked chicken back in at the end, when you’re adding the cauliflower purée and cheddar.

And yes, you’re right, I’ve found that the leftovers separate. Mainly, it seems, because the cauliflower contains so much water.

To all beginner cooks who may happen to read this: the prep work does get easier with time, much easier! I remember one of my first Rachael Ray “30-minute meals” took me 1 1/2 hours to complete. With practice, though, the process speeds up and gets a lot more fun along the way too! Time Savers for this recipe that save tons of prep work: try a bagged, pre-shredded organic sharp cheddar cheese 2) try chopped frozen cauliflower florets (thawed in the microwave) 3) try chopped frozen broccoli florets (thaw in microwave and just be sure to chop them up into smaller, bite-size pieces before adding to the soup) 4) buy bagged, shredded carrots.

First of all, made this for dinner last night for extended family and everyone LOVED it. (Makes the hubby nervous when I prepare brand new recipes for guests – you’d think he’d be use to it by now.) As far as leftovers, I wish I could tell you what I did differently, but mine didn’t separate and is just as delicious as last night, if not more so because the flavors have melded. For convenience sake, I did buy frozen cauliflower & broccoli (and used sliced onions I had in the freezer). I kinda did a double recipe, but didn’t measure anything. It was really thick, so I probably didn’t end up adding as much milk as the recipe called for, maybe that accounted for no separation. But it was (and still is) really, really yummy!!

One thing unclear to me while I was cooking the cauliflower was whether I should cover it with a lid or not because I wasn’t certain that if left uncovered that it would get soft enough to puree. Since the recipe did not say to cover it I cooked it uncovered for several minutes. It was taking far to long to soften so I decided to cover it and I continued to cook it on low heat. I checked it several times and there wasn’t enough moisture left in the pan so I had to add a little chicken broth. Finally when I thought it was soft enough I turned off the heat and added the milk. I proceeded to blend it with an immersion blender but it remained chunky so I poured it into a blender and blended it on low until it was smooth and creamy. After combining the cauliflower mixture with the broccoli mixture I found it too thick so I added more chicken broth. The final product was delicious, and I will definitely make it again. I’m thinking about adding corn in it next time & maybe crushed red pepper.

Made this tonight. Really delicious! I modified only one thing, I added 1cup of Ragu Double Cheddar Sauce and Eliminated one cup of cheese. Otherwise I kept to the recipe. Oh and I used a blender since I do not have a food processor. Thanks for the recipe. I can sneak veggies in to my husband’s diet!

Thanks so much for the recipe! I didn’t have enough cauliflower and had some fresh spinach that I needed to use (about 5 cups), so after cooking the cauliflower for a while, I added the spinach. My cauliflower/spinach puree was quite green, but it looked great once incorporated into the rest of the soup. Great flavors – I will definitely make this again!

[…] Jen on thescrumptiouspumpkin.com posted a recipe for Skinny Broccoli Cheddar Soup that is to die for. I love Broccoli Cheddar Soup, but it is traditionally so heavy and unhealthy. She took all the flour and heavy cream out and loaded up on vegetables. Check it out! […]

[…] I remember it being really good yet wishing it was a tad thicker. This new recipe is from the The Scrumptious Pumpkin and I believe I like this one better (I would really have to do a side by side taste to know for […]